Cinematic Sanity: Madness, Power, and Control in Selected Malayalam Films Through Foucault’s Lens

This article examines the cinematic construction of “madness” in Malayalam cinema through the Foucauldian lens of “power,” “discipline,” and “surveillance.” Drawing primarily from Michel Foucault’s Madness and Civilization (1988) and Discipline and Punish (1995), the paper situates cinematic “madness” as a social and cultural construct rather than a purely medical or pathological category. Through close readings of four significant Malayalam films—Thaniyavarthanam (1987), Thalavattam (1986), Ulladakkam (1991), and Mookkila Rajyathu (1991)—this study argues that these works displace personal psychological conditions into broader regimes of control, wherein “sanity” is policed, “madness” is surveilled, and individuals are situated within networks of family, clinic, and community.